CHAPTER ONE

From Me To You

 The night was clear with promising prospects that it would be an even clearer morning the next day. It had been like this for the past week now – the night was beginning to fuel the morning, like slave to master. He closed his eyes, trying to feel the inscribed messages that were etched into the biting winter breeze but he felt nothing – just numbness.

He stayed sprawled across the porch of the abandoned house that he and his brothers had made into a makeshift residence. That, of course, did not say much considering the house was all but a few pieces of weathered wood held together by rusted metal framing coming apart at the hinges. In his better days, Sehun would not have even cast this place a second glance but times were different now. 

The air in the house shifted and Sehun felt the quiet presence of his brother, “Luhan.”

At his name, a young man with delicate features stepped out from the shadows of the house, into the moonlight. His light caramel brown hair was tousled from the countless times he had tossed and turned in bed. He was a rather beautiful creature with pale skin and stark red lips but even more so than that, Luhan was warm – a quality that was rare within their kind.

“Can’t sleep?” Luhan asked softly, leaning against the doorframe with his hands in his pockets. He studied the sky above them – searching beyond the roof above the front porch, eyes fixed on the moon. Something out there was stirring – perhaps a war, perhaps an army, perhaps it was just his impatience but nevertheless, the night was beginning to grow restless.

Sehun stayed silent and unmoving. He was always this way – keeping to himself, in fear that his thoughts would burden others. Such were the thoughts of the youngest sibling who grew up isolated from his older brothers. For a long time, Sehun was the odd one – the one they all made fun of because while his brothers and sisters grew to their full form in a matter of five years, Sehun took ten. He was a bit of a late bloomer in vampire terms and even when he had reached his full form, he was the lanky one.

After he had been picked out as one of the twelve prodigal sons though, the criticism stopped altogether – no one questioned the King’s decision. Only then did he spend more time with his older brothers but a part of him was always absent – sometimes it felt like it was his emotions but at others it felt like it was his true self. 

Occasionally though, he would open up to Luhan and Luhan only. Perhaps it was because they were true brothers, sharing the same mother but even then, Sehun held back, telling Luhan only the parts that he wanted him to know.

At Sehun’s silence, Luhan spoke again, “The Eligorians are planning something – the night is changing; becoming weaker.” He paused just in time to catch Sehun shift uncomfortably at his words. “Kai’s proposing that the time to take action is drawing nearer.”

“He’s right.” Sehun mumbled just loud enough for Luhan to hear.

“These fifty years have been the longest years of my life,” Luhan admitted. Immortality was simultaneously a gift and curse that had befallen the Vampire fate, so naturally fifty years was only a small fraction of time but the past fifty years had felt like an eternity.

They had lost everything in the war – their family, their powers, their identity and even the simplest luxury of the wealth they had been born into. As predators of the night, they were left with little prey and had trained to go on for days without a single drop of warm blood. At first, it had been difficult but it got easier when Sehun stumbled across a human girl who claimed she had been a chambermaid for the royal family before they perished.

They made an exchange and from there, she helped them get their hands on a good supply of blood each week – whether it be from the vein or blood bags. Under the conditions they were in, anything was good as long as it was human blood.

“Do you think the time is right, hyung?” Sehun asked. For fifty years they had hid themselves, waiting for the right time to strike back. Once they took the first step, there would be no turning back and from there, they could not afford to make a single mistake.

The Eligorians were angels who had lost their celestial nature – fallen angels who lusted for power and as charming as they were, were far from harmless. One look in the eyes of an Eligorian could cause paralysis and hallucinations, depending on the level of strength. For them, it was all about the mind and as far as anyone was concerned – the mind was a muscle that was hard to train.

“I don’t know but time is running out for us.” Luhan sighed, “Something out there is going out of control – the world is losing its balance. Tao thinks they’re meddling with time.” Luhan paused before adding, “I didn’t even know that was possible.”  

They both heard the s